Posted
by
Soulskill
on Friday September 14, 2012 @05:53PM
from the we-have-found-that-customers-enjoy-paying-money dept.

WebMink writes "Back in 2009, Apple signed an agreement aimed at reducing electronic waste resulting from mobile phone accessories. But this week's launch of the iPhone 5 shows them reneging on that commitment. Instead of including a micro-USB connector on the iPhone, as they agreed to do along with the rest of the phone industry, they created yet another proprietary connector. At a stroke, they have junked earlier iPhone accessories, forced a new industry in Apple-only accessories to arise and broken their promise to the EC. It's a huge missed opportunity both for their customers and for the environment."

MHL doesn't, however, allow the device to power the adapter needed to actually connect it to anything (like a TV). And since MHL doesn't define any connector standard, the convention of violating the USB spec by hijacking micro USB ports isn't even consistent.

Want to connect your Samsung Galaxy S III to an HDMI television? No problem, you'll just need an 11-pin to 5-pin MHL adapter, a 5-pin MHL to HDMI adapter, some sort of external USB power source (MHL doesn't guarantee power, so not all devices can power an adapter properly), and a USB-to-micro-USB adapter to get the power to the MHL adapter... Oh yeah, and an HDMI cable.

If I want to connect an iDevice to a television, I need one adapter, and one HDMI cable. Two components. If I want to connect an MHL device to a television, I potentially need up to six components.

Why would I ever want to do this? MHL is a terrible idea on so many levels, and even when it works perfectly (with the minimum possible number of components), you've still managed to violate the USB spec.

The Micro USB connector sucks. Every phone I've ever seen using it starts having problems with loose connections causing intermittent charging after 9-12 months. Meanwhile the iPhones I have had have all charged fine for as long as I've owned them. I have a now ancient 3G iPhone, still charges fine after having been used by three members of my family over 4 years. Even disregarding the variety of features available on the Lightning connector, I'll pass on the Micro USB "standard", thanks.